


Song Ends in a Minor Key

by Chaerring



Series: Your Songs Remind Me Of Swimming [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek and Stiles are written in the stars, Derek is a kid, F/M, Gen, Just the beating of their hearts, Kidfic, M/M, Mama Hale is the Alpha, Parthenope was Laura's vocal teacher, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-22
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 16:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/493498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaerring/pseuds/Chaerring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Derek was in elementary school, Parthenope Stilinski taught Laura how to sing. Derek wasn't supposed to listen, but he did anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Song Ends in a Minor Key

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to TheGreatSporkWielder for betaing as always. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone reading this series!
> 
> And just be be sure, the title is from a Fiona Apple song "Werewolf". You should check it out.

When Derek was very young, only just finding his way through elementary school, dreading the scents and the sounds and all the people when he wanted to do nothing but stay at home with his pack (his Mother and Alpha especially), Laura took singing lessons. The lessons were on Mondays and Thursdays, barring the full moon, and Derek loved them even more than Laura did. It had nothing to do with his sister’s singing, though, and everything to do with her teacher. 

Mrs. Stilinski was the wife of one of the county’s deputies, a nice man who had given Derek an extra badge sticker on career day when no one was looking just because he’d asked politely. She was the only woman he had ever met that could take up as much space in a room as his mom did. His mom was Alpha, and her word was law in the Hale pack, but Mrs. Stilinski teased and laughed at her, teaching Laura exactly as she pleased.

Not that Derek was supposed to know any of this. In fact, he was supposed to stay pretty far away from Mrs. Stilinski and her singing. His dad had asked him to after catching him swaying by the door of the study where Laura was getting her lesson. Uncle Peter had laughed and told Derek that he would be able to see Mrs. Stilinski after he convinced her to leave Caleb Stilinski and marry him instead. 

Derek didn’t believe him. He knew his mom would never leave his dad, and at the town festival he had seen Mrs. Stilinski look at Deputy Stilinski with the same far-eyed forever mushy look that his mom got. So sometimes, because he didn’t believe Peter, Derek stood at the door and listened anyway. He knew he was supposed to listen to his Dad just as much as he was his mom, but the wolf in him didn’t _have_ to. Dad wasn’t Alpha like Mom was. Sure, he would probably be doing all of his chores and the chores of Laura’s he could do if he got caught, but he thought the sound of Mrs. Stilinski singing was worth it.

Her voice was like an angel’s. At least, he thought it might be what an angel’s was like. It was the only sound that he thought might be better than the family summer howl when they went camping and were allowed to raise their voices however high they wanted. When Mrs. Stilinski sang, it was like all the other noise in the house stopped, or faded away. For Derek, who heard so much all the time, especially at school, it was so nice to be able to get off the bus and come home to hear nothing but beautiful clear notes. They always soothed away how frustrated he was by the humans he shared class with. So Derek braved his parents’ wrath.

At least, until the day the door opened while he was sitting and leaning against it and he went tumbling backwards into Mrs. Stilinski’s feet.

When Derek looked up, all he could see was the roundness of her belly. It completely eclipsed her face and upper body until she turned sideways and bent a little to look at him. 

“Hello, Derek. How are you today?”

She spoke to him with her musical voice like they saw each other every day. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet and tried to look like he hadn’t been spying.

“I’m good, Mrs. Stilinski. How are you?”

If he was going to get caught, it was better to lessen the punishment by using his manners, he thought. She swayed a little making a small (but still lovely) groan and placed her hand over her round stomach. 

“The munchkin is getting rambunctious.”

“Munchkin? Ram-rambun--” 

Derek stumbled over the unfamiliar word and felt his cheeks heat up, but Mrs. Stilinski’s lips only curved slightly.

“Rambunctious, it means he’s hyper, misbehaving a little, but not in a very bad way, and the munchkin I refer to is this one riding along with me.”

He realized what she meant and stared at her belly protruding out in her flowing dress.

“A baby!”

Babies were precious and important to Pack, to family. Derek knew that even though he was still the youngest. 

“That’s right. It seems my little one likes the sound of your voice. He keeps moving when he hears it. Would you like to feel?”

Derek stared up at her and bit his lip before looking around the hallway. Was it really okay? 

“Yes, I would like--”

She took his hand before he could even finish and laid it directly on the middle of her stomach. He could feel the baby’s push under his hand. It seemed to be moving an awful lot.

“Can you feel it?”

“Yes.” He looked up at her face with wonder in his eyes. “But why did you say the baby likes my voice? Yours is so beautiful.”

“Oh, Thelxiope likes my voice too, I know, but he’s never heard yours before. It’s new and exciting to him.”

Derek sounded out the name in his head before he tried to repeat it back to her.

“Thelxiope?”

“It’s a very old family name. Generally a woman’s, but I’m afraid I’m going to stick my little boy with it.”

“Why?”

Everything about Mrs. Stilinski made Derek curious. She was so different from other humans he had met, but still not like the pack at all.

“Well, it’s just like your pack places a lot of importance in the tradition of things. My family does that too, just in different ways.”

Derek hadn’t known that Mrs. Stilinski knew about their family being pack. That was a surprise.

“Do you...do you have a pack?”

She hummed a moment and Derek could feel the baby moved under his hand almost in time with his thumping nervous heart.

“Not exactly. I used to have a lot of sisters, but we were more like a flock than a pack; and now I have Caleb and Thelxiope for my family.”

It was, of course, that moment when Derek was going to ask another question that his mother comes around the corner.

“Derek. I thought your father told you not to listen to Laura’s lessons.”

There’s a growl under his mother’s voice. Not one he thinks a human could hear, but it’s definitely one that he hears.

“Oh, don’t be hard on him, Bethany. I wasn’t doing anything except talking to him about Thelxiope and Caleb. You know I wouldn’t. That’s behind me.”

Derek didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. Of course, Mrs. Stilinski wasn’t going to do anything to him.

“We are what we are, Parthenope. Even if we’re out of practice.”

His mother’s eyes are tinged red ever so slightly and Derek doesn’t want to get into anymore trouble. He reluctantly pulled his hand away from the baby and scurried to his mother’s side. She put a hand on his shoulder and he could feel the weight of it in his bones. From his new position he can see the way Mrs. Stilinski’s eyes have turned grey and shifting like a storm.

“I’m not out of practice, but if that’s the way you feel perhaps I shouldn’t be giving Laura lessons, either.”

His mother seemed to relent a little and she sighed so hard Derek could feel her whole body move.

“No, that isn’t what I meant.”

Mrs. Stilinski still didn’t look happy, but she nodded.

“I was just going to get some water when I found Derek. We’ll talk after I finish Laura’s lesson.”

It was strange for Derek to hear someone else telling his mother she was going to do something. His dad was the only one who ever got away with it.

“I’ll bring you a glass. There’s what? Twenty minutes left?”

“Yes, thank you. Have a good afternoon, Derek.”

Derek tried to wave, but Mrs. Stilinski had disappeared back through the door. His mother’s hand tightened on his shoulder and he tried not to make it worse by squirming as she marched him away from the hall.

**Author's Note:**

> Next thing on the agenda: A piece about Gerard and hunters in this verse.


End file.
